The hurricane ravaged Escenario Verde (Green Stage)

This year’s festival at Benicassim has to go on record as one of the most eventful, especially on the Friday night. A forest fire (if only Lloyd Cole had reformed the Commotions to play at the Spanish musicfest) raged across the road from the main stage, not in front of it as the hopelessly inaccurate report in the NME suggested, but near enough to warm the seat of your pants. At the same time a 70 kph hurricane blew right across the site for several hours taking bits of the two main stages with it, most of the backstage VIP area along with numerous tents.

The main casualty was the Kings of Leon set. Whilst they may have been prepared to postpone their appearance until the Saturday their gig gear had already left town, bound for the Swiss border. Maxïmo Park did reschedule their appearance and didn’t disappoint. ‘Acrobat’ was a high (wire) point.

The thing about the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, even more than other festivals is that you shouldn’t set too much store by who you’ll see. In addition to the KOL storm intervention Lily Allen was a no show, possibly due to a wig malfunction. Whilst one of my intended highlights ‘TV on the Radio’ did appear, they took to the stage an hour early during which time I was circling the site having pointless discussions with various ‘officials’ about different types of car park accreditation.

Still Oasis were pretty good despite the now obligatory sound problems. Elbow brought the best of Manchester to the Castellón province and The Killers, headlining on the Sunday night brought the house down, what was left of it.